New York

New York Is Among the ‘Pest-iest' States in the Country, Study Says

What to Know

  • New Yorkers have been tweeting a lot about bugs, especially bed bugs
  • Bed bugs are the most talked about common pest on social media
  • Terminix says it has seen a steady increase in bed bug infestations since the 1990s

New Yorkers really, really love to talk about bugs, according to a new study, which found the state to be the second “pesti-est” state in the country. 

Only the state of Texas beat out New York in the study by Terminix, which analyzed per capita social media chatter about common pests in all 50 states.

The pest control company analyzed millions of social media posts, finding that the highest rates of pest posts were in the District of Columbia. Texas and New York came in second and third, followed by Virginia and California, respectively. 

Top Tri-State News Photos

Terminix says Americans searched about bed bugs 7.3 million times this year, nearly triple the amount of times they searched for the runner-up, scorpions. Spiders, silverfish and hornets rounded out the top five, followed by cockroaches, centipedes, wasps, earwigs and ticks. 

Among the other interesting findings: Virginians had the most social media posts about mosquitoes, and Washington state residents posted the most about spiders. 

These are the top 17 pest-iest states (including Washington, D.C.):

1. District of Columbia

2. Texas

3. New York

4. Virginia

5. California

6. Nevada

7. Arizona

8. Oregon

9. Georgia

10. Massachusetts

11. Florida

12. Nebraska

13. Hawaii

14. Washington

15. Alaska

16. Louisiana

17. Oklahoma

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